The tower s name derives from the fact that it features a turn of 90 degrees between the bottom and top floor. [18]
[Project 1] Santiago Calatrava Turning Torso in Malmö, SE Santiago Calatrava s high-rise building at Öresund sound is the highest building in Scandinavia, the second-highest residential building in Europe and the new landmark of the port of Malmö in southern Sweden. The Spanish architect has modelled the 190 metre high tower on the human body, right down to the 820 ton steel backbone. The Turning Torso towers over Malmö s western dock area and Öresund sound as a landmark which is clearly visible from afar. Owner: HSB Malmö, Malmö, SE Architects: Santiago Calatrava SA, Zürich, CH Samark Arkitektur & Design, Malmö / Stockholm, SE Interior design: Monica Dare / Målaremästarna, Stockholm, SE Monica Sandström Location: Western dockland, Malmö, SE Sto products: Interior plasters, interior paints, metallic coating Applicator: Sven-Olle Ekstrand Målarikonsult AB, Staffanstorp, SE Photographs: Pierre Mens/ HSB Malmö, lmö, SE Ole Jais, Gothenburg, SE [19]
Four years ago, the Bo01 building exhibition was held on the site at the foot of the Turning Torso. Today, the houses are sought after on account of their water s-edge location. [20]
[21]
[Project 1] The Torso s backbone crucial bearing element or formal attribute? Typically of Calatrava s work, it is actually both. The exterior steel structure alone weighs 820 tons. It bears only a small portion of the vertical loads, however. [22]
Malmö s landmark in the limelight: At night, the tower s facade is bathed in light of changing colours. [23]
[Project 1] Monica Dare s show apartment is a homage to the Nordic light and the nearby sea. A turquoise colour with shimmer effect has been chosen for the walls of the living room (left). The leafy roof in the bedroom (centre and right) has been realised in StoLook Metallic in silver. [24]
Semi-transparent curtains along the circular ceiling recess serve to create a room within a room. The carpet also takes up the circular form. [25]
[Project 1] Ground plans of the ground floor and 43rd floor. The wall of the building s core is 2.5 metres thick in the bottom storey and only 30 centimetres thick in the top storey. [26]
The outside walls are inclined by up to seven degrees. As a result, it takes a few seconds to find one s balance in the apartments. [27]
Santiago Calatrava s work combines architecture and art into one: Sketch on the theme of the Turning Torso. The Turning Torso is a hot topic - the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia has already dedicated a page to it. In March 2005 it received the MIPIM Award for Europe s best residential building at the Cannes real estate exhibition. And the Discovery Channel visited the construction site back in February 2004 to film an episode of the Extreme Engineering TV series. In so doing, the TV channel placed Scandinavia s highest high-rise building on a level with utopian projects such as a transatlantic tunnel or a bridge of the Bering Strait. But what exactly do we mean by utopian? The bridge over the Öresund sound which is within sight of the new building and which was opened in 2002 was long considered to be pie in the sky. And yet the Turning Torso would probably never have come about without it, as the new land link between Copenhagen and Malmö gave rise to an unprecedented building boom in the region. New standards were set not least of all by the Bo01 residential building exhibition, which was held in the western dockland area of Malmö that is now dominated by the Turning Torso. The form of the new building is based on Calatrava s marble sculpture Twisting Torso from 1996. According to the official story, Johnny Örbäck, the then managing director at HSB Malmö, saw the sculpture in 1999 in a brochure which Calatrava had put together in a bid for the commission to design the Öresund bridge. Örbäck returned to Calatrava in Zürich and asked him to design a residential and office tower for Malmö according to the same formal principles. And so the Twisting Torso became the Turning Torso. The new building s storey levels are offset by 90 degrees between the bottom and top floor. For each of the 54 storeys, this results in a turn of 1.6 degrees, thus requiring the facade surfaces to be curved along two axes. The facades consist of curved aluminium panels and flat glass panels which are inclined by up to seven degrees. The segmented structure of the building consists of nine cubes, each five storeys high, which are visually separated by set-back mezzanines. The bottom two cubes contain around 4,000 square metres of office and shop space, while the upper seven cubes offer space for 147 apartments ranging in size from 45 to 190 square metres and in monthly rent from 1,000 to 3,500 euros. At the very top, on the 53rd and 54th storeys, are two conference floors which the buil- [28]
[Project 1] Santiago Calatrava s watercolour study shows the Turning Torso as a vertical exclamation mark in the flat coastal landscape of Schonen. ding s owner proudly describes as the most exclusive in the entire Nordic region. Notwithstanding the question as to how close to nature life in a high-rise building can be, the Turning Torso has also been built in compliance with strict ecological standards. The entire scope of energy required to run the building is obtained from regenerative, regional sources, in particular a nearby wind farm. The heating energy consumption is in keeping with the target value of 105 kwh/m²a stipulated for new buildings by Malmö s municipal authorities. And a number of hazardous materials, such as copper, PVC and isocyanate, have been carefully avoided in designing the building. Three days and nights were required just to concrete the Turning Torso s 5,100 cubic metre foundation in one piece. The building s core, a concrete pipe, measures ten metres in diameter and has a wall thickness of 2.5 metres at its base. The most striking element of the tower, however, is its 820 ton exterior backbone made of steel - demonstrating how the building alludes to Calatrava s torso not only in terms of form, but on a structural level, too. Heavy projecting diagonal members weighing 12 to 20 tons each - so-called cigars - bear loads from the storey levels. Wind tunnel tests at the University of Western Ontario in Canada have shown that even in hurricanes the Turning Torso will only sway by 30 centimetres at its highest point. Despite its height and the heavy winds which are to be expected, all rooms in the apartments are fitted with windows which can be opened. For the most part they are room-high, so that the occupants can enjoy the extraordinary view. Oiled oak parquet floors, fittings by Philippe Starck and a show apartment with creative interior finishes provide an indication of the investor s target clientele. Meanwhile, the building boom continues apace on both sides of Öresund sound: Copenhagen s south-eastern districts of Amager and Ørestad seem to be one gigantic building site, and in Malmö the redevelopment of the dockland areas is far complete. And for Santiago Calatrava too, the Turning Torso signals only the beginning of a new chapter in his work: At the end of July he presented the plans for the Fordham Spire, Chicago s new, highest skyscraper. This residential and hotel tower is designed to reach a height including antenna of 609 metres, even rotating by 270 degrees from base to top. [29]